Match report 1st XI vs Leinster at Phoenix

After a refreshing break your correspondent returned to auxiliary scorer duties for what would be a key match for both sides. Leinster had won the two previous meetings at the Phoenix Park despite a first innings century by Peterson in 2014. Richie Lawrence won the toss and chose to bat. The batting order for Phoenix was Alister Taylor, M D Masud Ahmed, Sam Anderson, Thomas Anders, Rory Anders, Matt Scott, Adam Chester, Richie Lawrence, Ben White, Gordon Millar, Matt Lunson.

Watched by his parents Taylor was adhesive for half an hour but unfortunately was then bowled by Carroll. Masud and Anderson took the home team to 70 for 1 but suddenly the loss of 3 wickets for 3 runs left the home struggling on 73 for 4 with Masud’s 43 the best effort to this point. The stand between Rory Anders and Matt Scott stabilised the innings somewhat for Phoenix and there was some real aggression from Adam Chester and Ben White at the end of the innings and it probably went on a bit too long for Leinster’s liking. Rory Anders anchored the recovery with 88 from 95 balls while Chester made 53 from 36 balls and White hit 37 from 19 balls. International interest in the match was signified by the movie star the Pink Panther disguising himself as Phoenix cricket chair David Ensor just to watch the game. Your correspondent found the movie hero a useful ally in identifying the opposition bowlers although it was not a great day for the auxiliary scorer.

Chasing a target of 301 was always going to be a tall order for the visitors but they had chased 260 in 2014 with just two wickets down and their promotion ambitions required them to take as many bonus points from Phoenix as they could. This probably meant that their first key milestone was to reach 201 and see what overs and wickets they had in hand after that.

As it turned out they were overmatched by a Phoenix bowling attack on its game and there was a procession of wickets being lost. Joe Carroll played a lone hand with 41 from 43 balls and although there were only two ducks there were 5 single figure scores and although Forrest and O’Gorman were adhesive for a while they were 80 short of a bonus point when the last wicket fell in the 36th over after scoring at roughly 3.5 runs an over while requiring 6 runs an over. Of the seven bowlers used by Phoenix Scott was the only one who failed to take a wicket. Lunson was the most expensive with an economy rate of 5.4 but he did take 2 wickets with Thomas Anders ending on 2-6, Ben White 2-12, Sam Anderson 2-23, Rory Anders 1-10 and Gordon Millar 1-13.

Phoenix batting A good recovery by the middle order with Rory Anders making 88

Phoenix bowling A good team effort by the bowling attack

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